The operation of modern automotive vehicles is becoming more autonomous, such as being able to provide control with less and less driver intervention. Autonomous driving vehicles historically have been defined as driverless robotic machines capable of operating in a variety of environments and driving situations without intervention, input, or assistance from a human operator. At autonomous driving status, the vehicle is driving itself with sensors obtaining surrounding information and control devices which operate longitudinal and lateral driving of the vehicle. The most recent advancements in this area have come from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which has supported a variety of competitions designed to further the state of robotic technology for special applications.
Generally autonomous vehicle technology is called a driver assistance system (DAS) or advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). These systems assist the driver in decision and control, but inevitably the decisions and control are the responsibility of the driver. Further, these systems can be either “active” or “passive” in how they are implemented. Active DAS means that the vehicle itself controls various longitudinal and/or lateral aspects of the vehicle's driving behavior, or rather, very specific driving tasks, through its sensors, algorithms, processing systems, and actuators. Passive DAS means that the vehicle will simply assist the driver, through its sensors, algorithms, processing systems, and human-machine interfaces (HMIs) with controlling various longitudinal and/or lateral aspects of vehicle control. For example, in a collision avoidance situation an active system would bring the vehicle to a stop or route the vehicle around the obstacle in the immediate path. A passive system would provide some type of visual, auditory, and haptic cues to the driver to stop or route the vehicle around the obstacle.
As stated above, DAS system helps the driver with many tasks ingrained into the driving process and implemented specifically for the purpose to increase car and road safety, as well as driver convenience. Such DAS systems include, but not limit to cruise control, adaptive cruise control (ACC), active steering for lane keeping, lane change assistance, highway merge assistance, collision mitigation and avoidance systems, pedestrian protection systems, automated and/or assistive parking, sign recognition, blind spot detection for collision mitigation, and stop and go traffic assistance.
FIGS. 1a and 1b is a partially perspective view of a steering wheel having a cruise control interface in vehicles of the prior art. Different variants of cruise control HMI are used by different manufacturers. As shown in FIG. 1a, there are some control buttons at the left side of the steering wheel. These buttons include On/Off, Set+, Set−, and Resume for purposes of activating the system, increasing speed, decreasing speed, and resuming cruise control, respectively. In FIG. 1b, the control buttons are at the right side of the steering wheel, These buttons include On/Off, Cancel, Res/Accel, and Coast/Set for purposes of activating the system, cancelling the activation of the system, resuming cruise control/increasing speed, and coasting/setting cruise control, respectively. The resulting impact of deployment of different DAS HMI is that the controls are often difficult to understand and to use. Further, all of these systems are used in an explicit manner, requiring the driver to make deliberate knowledge-based decisions and behaviors in order to operate the system (i.e., explicit control schemes).
In addition, even a vehicle that can drive autonomously in all types of driving situations, it still needs to be able to facilitate a seamless, intuitive transitioning of control immediately with little effort on the part of the driver. Autonomously driving means that a vehicle is driving itself with sensors obtaining information of the surrounding and sensors with actuators which operate the longitudinal driving and the lateral driving of the car without any driver operation. A computer coordinates all the information and the operations. This driving situation is also called autonomous control status. When the driver controls the car at all without any longitudinal and/or transversal assistance of the car it is called driver control status. The semi autonomous status is when the driver is supported by at least one driving assistance system, e.g. the driver uses the steering and the vehicle takes care for the longitudinal driving by braking or accelerating.
Most of the known prior art on this subject matter of HMIs for DAS is similar to that shown for cruise control examples in FIGS. 1a and 1b. In order to change the driving status of the vehicle, regardless of the level or number of DAS available, the driver makes an explicit engagement of the system, e.g., pushes a button, turns a knob, slides a switch, or uses some type of verbal command.
US patent application 2009/0287367 A1 describes a method and apparatus for driver control of a Limited-Ability Autonomous Vehicle. It focuses on how a driver might control a vehicle equipped with the necessary technologies required for more or less complete autonomous driving. The vehicle incorporates the necessary sensor technology (e.g., cameras, Lidar, etc.), navigation technology (e.g., road and traffic assessment modules), driver monitoring, navigation planning, toward and lateral motion supervisors, and lastly a driver command processor.
The US patent application proposes a type of keyboard, touchpad, or joystick for purposes of commanding the vehicle to perform maneuvers during both low and high speed driving conditions and situations. The key aspect of this patent application is the manner in which this communication takes place, and the communication type is defined as explicit. For instance, the commands communicated to the autonomous vehicle require a specific button press, touchscreen element activation, or joystick movement for purpose of communicating a specific action or maneuver for the vehicle to perform. In essence, the commands for a status change (i.e., driver control-to-autonomous control) are explicitly communicated to the vehicle via the various proposed interface devices.
It is desirable to come up with an improved controlling type between the driver and the vehicle, so as to implement the autonomous driving seamlessly and effectively.